Red tube-shaped flowers are best at providing sugar-based nectar that attracts and benefits all species of hummingbirds (Broad-tailed Hummingbird photo by Bill Maynard).

Share your backyard birding experiences and photographs with The Birding Wire at editorstbw2@gmail.com

While April showers bring May flowers, shopping at an area greenhouse in May is another way to add May flowers to your yard – just in time to coincide with hummingbird migration and nesting. Local greenhouses and nurseries are filling with the colors of spring and the promise of bountiful spring and summer flowers ahead. That makes it easy to add touches of color and the beauty of flowers by activating your garden with new plants or adding a new planting circle with something simple like a hummingbird flower garden, or a goldfinch seed garden by providing nectar-producing flowers or seed-producing sunflowers.

Starting with a hummingbird garden or two, you ideally want to emphasize red tube-shaped flowers, which are proven to be the best at providing sugar-based nectar that attracts and benefits all species of hummingbirds. Read more

May 6, 2026DNR contact: Kara Colton, 248-634-0240
Michigan Natural Features Inventory contact: David Cuthrell
Volunteer sign-up: mnfi@msu.edu

Once you know where ospreys like to build their giant nests, you won’t be able to stop looking for them.Ospreys are long-lived birds (averaging 15-20 years), and pairs usually return to the same nest and add to it each year.

Made of sticks and lined with grasses, mud and soft materials, nests can reach 10-13 feet deep and 3-6 feet in diameter after years of building.Historically, ospreys nested only on cliffs, at the tops of tall trees or on “snags” – dead trees that are still standing. But due to humans removing or disturbing these important habitat elements, ospreys have adapted to build nests on human-built structures like utility poles, towers and platforms.

Volunteer to observe nests near you.  The Osprey Adopt-A-Nest program was started by MI Birds, a partnership between Audubon Great Lakes and the DNR. In 2022, the Michigan Natural Features Inventory stepped in to help support this important data collection effort long-term. This work is only possible with the help of Adopt-A-Nest volunteers who monitor osprey nests and track the reproductive success of nesting pairs throughout Michigan.

To sign up to volunteer, contact MNFI at mnfi@msu.edu and indicate the county where you would like to observe. Volunteers need to visit a nest three times, for 30 minutes each visit, in spring through late summer. A pair of binoculars is the only tool needed for most observations, though a spotting scope is helpful for monitoring cell tower nests.Volunteers use an online form to report observations, including location information, whether a nest is occupied by a nesting pair of ospreys and, if so, whether they are successfully raising chicks.

In southern Michigan, May through July is the most active period for osprey nesting; in northern Michigan, it’s June through August. By late summer, young ospreys develop feathers (called “fledging”) that are large enough for flight. The birds then migrate south in the fall.To learn more, check out the Michigan Natural Features Inventory’s Osprey Adopt-A-Nest Program StoryMap.  Read more

In response to the detection of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a Charlevoix County cattle herd, the Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture & Rural Development, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture are conducting deer sampling in Charlevoix and Antrim counties to determine if the disease is present in the local wild deer population. There have been no previously documented cases of bovine TB in deer in these counties. Read more

Click here to watch

Featuring perspectives from state and tribal wildlife managers, ranchers, outfitters, conservationists, and others living and working in grizzly country, the film highlights the importance of balanced, science-based wildlife management and public education.

SCI Foundation’s Education Department has released a new one-hour documentary, Grizzly Bears Beyond the Horizon, now available to watch on YouTube. The film takes viewers deep into grizzly country to explore one of North America’s most significant conservation success stories—the recovery of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems—and the modern realities of managing a thriving population alongside people.

Real voices from grizzly country

Through interviews with state and tribal wildlife managers, ranchers, outfitters, a bear attack survivor, and conservationists, Grizzly Bears Beyond the Horizon centers real voices from the communities most directly affected by grizzly recovery. The documentary examines the decades of collaboration that brought the species back from the brink and explores why the next chapter must be guided by science-based decision-making, public education, and shared responsibility for coexistence.

Production and partners

The film was produced by Discover MediaWorks. Funding partners include Safari Club International Foundation, Sables, Hunters Legacy Fund, Bear Trust International, and the Montana Outdoor Legacy Foundation. Contributing partners include Wyoming Game and Fish, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Natural Resources Department, People and Carnivores, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association, the Fire tribe, and Silverline Films. Read more

As part of ongoing monitoring efforts to document recovery of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Geological Survey, in conjunction with Yellowstone National Park, is working to inform the public that pre-baiting and scientific capture operations are once again about to begin within Yellowstone National Park. Agency biologists with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) will begin the field captures May 1 and continue through October 15. Capture operations can include a variety of activities, but all areas where work is being conducted will have major access points marked with warning signs. It is critical that all members of the public heed these signs.

Monitoring of the grizzly bear population is vital to ongoing research and management of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. To attract bears, biologists use natural food sources such as recently road-killed deer and elk. Potential capture sites are baited with these natural foods and if indications are that grizzly bears are in the area, culvert traps or foot snares are used to capture bears. Once captured, bears are handled in accordance with strict safety and animal care protocols developed by the IGBST and approved by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Whenever bear capture activities are being conducted for scientific purposes, the area around the site will be posted with brightly colored warning signs to inform the public of the activities occurring. These signs are posted along the major access points to the capture site. It is important that the public heed these signs and do not venture into an area that has been posted. For more information regarding grizzly bear capture efforts call the IGBST trapping hotline at 406-994-6675. Information about the grizzly bear research and monitoring is available from the IGBST website: https://www.usgs.gov/science/interagency-grizzly-bear-study-team